


Somebody Like You and Me

by cyrene



Series: Long Live [5]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Remus Lupin Needs a Hug, Suspected Child Abuse, Werewolf Swearwolf, allusions to Walburga Black's A+ parenting skills, this is literally only rated teen bc Remus Lupin has a foul mouth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:14:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27902092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cyrene/pseuds/cyrene
Summary: For the werewolf, for the werewolf, have sympathy. For the werewolf is somebody like you and me.
Series: Long Live [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2026196
Kudos: 10





	Somebody Like You and Me

**Author's Note:**

> Your songs for this fic are ["Werewolf" by Cat Power](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH56e2OQD0Y) and ["Misbehaviour" by the Vaccines](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKJeQpa3K0U). Shoot me all your tunes for the Maurauders, Jily, and Wolfstar in the comments, bc I'm making a playlist.

It started with Remus, but it ended when Peter, tugging at the front of his hair in frustration, asked James and Sirius if Chemotherapy was more effective under the full moon, or what.

Remus had gotten away with it for almost a year and a half. He left every month, ostensibly to go home and visit his sick mum. She had a Muggle disease, cancer, and both the disease and the cure made her very ill. Remus visited her once a month, and came back looking exhausted and torn apart and jumpy. That was enough to raise James’s hackles, but it was Sirius who noticed the fresh scars and the bruising.

“They’re beating him,” Sirius said into the quiet dark, where they were all gathered in James’s bed on the one night of the month they could talk about this. “He goes home and he comes back to us with... with _marks_.” He spat the word out with disgust.

Did Sirius’s mother discipline him? Sure! But she never once left a mark on him. No matter what spell she used, or told Kreacher to use, Sirius was physically okay afterwards. He tried not to imagine having to wear the evidence on his skin day in and day out. The thought made him uncomfortably angry.

“What can we do about it?” Peter asked, shifting nervously on the bed.

“Maybe we can see if there’s a magical cure for cancer?” James asked, but he didn’t sound sure at all.

“What good would that do?” Peter wanted to know.

“Well,” James said slowly, “if his mum were better, maybe she could do something about it.”

“Assuming she’s not involved,” Sirius said with a dark frown.

“Assuming she’s not... involved?” James echoed, looking surprised. It had never occurred to him that Remus’s mother might be in on it as well, and that was James for you. Always looking for the best in people.

“So, what do we _do_?” Peter whined again, fidgeting with the sleeves of his pajamas. When James and Sirius shrugged he said, “We should talk to Professor McGonagall about it.”

This idea was met with derision and Sirius scoffing, “What’s Minnie going to do? Give us detention for making up stories?”

They didn’t settle on a solution that month, nor the next, but the month after that they spent sneaking into the library under the invisibility cloak to research magical cures for Muggle diseases.

The month after that, when Remus got his things together to leave, Sirius couldn’t stop himself any longer and grabbed him by the hand.

“Don’t go,” Sirius said, his voice small but fierce. “Just this once.”

Remus’s smile was bemused, but there was an underlying fear in his eyes that Sirius didn’t like. “I have to, Sirius. My mum, remember? I’ll see you tomorrow night.”

It was the middle of second year before they figured it out, before Peter asked the question that made Sirius startle so hard he dropped an ancient book on the floor. It made a stunningly loud noise in the empty library.

“I doubt it,” James answered with a glare at Sirius, still not there yet.

“He’s a werewolf,” Sirius said, and his voice sounded very far away to him, like it belonged to someone else. “He’s a werewolf, and he’s doing it to himself.”

James and Peter thought about that for a minute, then Peter said, “And we’ve been so cold to his father!”

“We thought he was beating him!” James said in their defense, but he sounded guilty too.

It was true, though, none of the boys had been particularly kind to Mr. Lupin, and Sirius had gone full “Young Master Black” on the man. None of them had been able to look him in the eye, knowing what they knew about Remus.

Or what they thought they knew.

Because the reality was vastly different, if equally horrific. Sirius and Peter were looking at each other with growing unease when James finally spoke up.

“What the hell is wrong with the two of you?!” he asked, his voice fierce in its anger. “This is Remus we’re talking about! He folds his socks, and opens doors for girls, and reads us Tolkien, for Merlin’s sake!” He shook his head so hard his glasses flew off his nose.

“B-but—” oh, and the return of Peter’s stutter meant this was _bad_ , “if he’s a w-werewolf...”

“Then he’s a werewolf,” James said firmly, adjusting his glasses back onto his nose. “But he’s still our friend. He’s one of us, since day one, and we can’t abandon him over something he can’t even help.”

“He’s right,” Sirius said finally, having realized over the last minute that, while werewolves on the full moon were terrifying, Remus read poetry, wore handknitted jumpers that were always too large, and always had a bar of chocolate on his person. That was... not so scary. “He’s still our Remus. We have to help him.”

Then the question became, how did one help a werewolf? James and Sirius threw theories back and forth until literal daybreak.

“Well,” Peter said irritably, with a cracking yawn, “why don’t we just ask Remus? Surely he can tell us more about being a werewolf than we could ever figure out on our own.”

“That,” James said, tapping his chin with one finger, “is a marvelous idea.”

“They’d take him to Pomfrey,” Sirius said, having caught onto the plan immediately.

Peter, who had been hoping his resolution meant they could all get some sleep finally, sighed and threw his hands up. “We’re going now, then.”

“We’re going now,” James and Sirius confirmed, as they used their wands to replace all the books they’d been reading from the Restricted Section. The three of them huddled under the invisibility cloak, and made their way to the medical wing.

They arrived in time to see Madame Pomfrey help a bloody, limping Remus into bed. She immediately began performing spells on his wounds, cleaning and magically stitching him up with the greatest of care while he winced and tried very hard not to make any noise. It tugged at Sirius’s heart, seeing him like that, and James and Peter didn’t look much better off.

Finally, Madame Pomfrey finished, tucking Remus into bed and wandering off to her office at the end of the long room. The three boys took the opportunity to slip inside, closing the door quietly behind them. Not quite silently, though.

“Who’s there?” Remus asked, sitting up awkwardly in his hospital bed. “Who’s fucking there?”

“Slow down, mate,” James said, slipping the hood of the cloak down. “It’s just us.”  
  
The terror in Remus’s eyes was palpable. He looked from one boy to the other to the other, his mouth open and very still as he pulled the blankets up to his chin.

“We need to have a Roommate’s meeting,” James said in a mocking tone, stepping forward, out of the cloak, “about your ‘furry little problem’ Remus.” He actually did finger-quotes when he said it, and Sirius snorted. Peter giggled wildly.

Remus’s face was awash with confusion, but a slow smile spread on his face.

“My what now?” he asked, trying valiantly to keep a straight expression and failing.

“We know, Remus,” James said, and shook his finger warningly.

“We know it’s not your dad hurting you,” Sirius said quietly. “We know about the full moon. Is your mum even sick?”

Remus’s pale face stared out at them from where he was huddled under his blankets. His lower lip trembled a bit as he said, “I’ll get my shit out. I’ll go home. Please, just _please_ , don’t fucking tell anyone!”

“We’re not going to tell anyone!” Peter said, looking offended. “We want to help.”

“Oh.” Remus sat in silence for a moment. “Help what?” he asked, his face all screwed up.

“Anything you need help with,” James said with a weak shrug. “Whatever we can do.”

“James,” Remus said carefully. “I don’t think this is something you can fix. I’m a fucking werewolf, and I’ll always be one.”

“That’s our dilemma,” James admitted. “But if we can’t _cure_ you...” he rubbed one finger across his chin. “Surely there’s something we can do to _help_. Like, to make it easier.”

“James,” Remus said in the same voice he usually used when James started getting ideas. “You’ve got to go back to bed. Madame Pomfrey’s going to walk in here any moment, and then we’ll all be in for it.”

“Quite right,” said a voice from behind the boys, causing all four of them to jump in alarm.

“Minnie!” Sirius cried out, as he and Peter stepped forward to cover for the fact that James was shoving the invisibility cloak in his pocket.

His overture was met with a sour grimace. “It’s still Professor McGonagall to you, Sirius Black. Now tell me what you boys are doing out of bed, sneaking into the infirmary like a band of Marauders, and tell me immediately so I may adjust my house’s points accordingly.”

Her voice was low and menacing, and Sirius suddenly realized that she knew. Of course she did. The whole staff probably knew, which certainly explained why Remus just didn’t exist to Slughorn.

“Min—I mean Professor,” Sirius spoke up, waving at James and Peter and Remus to be silent. “We just wanted to make sure our, ah, fellow Marauder here was okay with his, you know, furry little problem.” He saw Minnie’s eyes go wide, her mouth working soundlessly, and used the opportunity to continue talking. “Now that we’ve assured ourselves that he’s healthy and hale – well, as much as he can be, given the circumstances, -- we’re more than happy to return to our rooms. Though I believe it’s time for breakfast,” he said.

Professor McGonagall was still staring at them all like they were something she just couldn’t fathom, and Sirius opened his mouth, fully prepared to recite songs from The Hobbit just to continue talking. She held up her hand.

“Enough, Mr. Black. Enough. None of you is to attend class today. I will have your assignments sent to you by lunchtime, and I expect you to not fall behind. You will never, ever sneak out of bed again for any purpose. In return, you may have leave to come here on the morning after the full moon, as early as you like, to check on Remus, so long as you don’t bother Madame Pomfrey.”

The boys’ eyes were as wide as saucers, all of them staring back at their Professor. She turned to walk away.

“Oh,” she added, turning back slightly. “Ten points to Gryffindor, boys, for each of you.”

They stared at each other in awe for a moment before she ushered them out of the room. Sirius turned back to give Remus a small wave and a smile, just to assure him once more that everything was all right.

“Marauders,” James said with a breathless laugh as the three of them tripped through the portrait, swimming upstream against the tide of students leaving for breakfast.

By the time lunch rolled around, the whole school was talking about it. Gryffindor was edging out Ravenclaw for the House Cup by thirty-eight points and rumor somehow knew who was responsible, though they never would find out just how.

The boys couldn’t explain it themselves, though they did end up talking about it in their Roommate’s meeting.

James put up the giant “INTERVENTION” banner they’d made in first year to convince Sirius to pick up his damn clothes, because house elves weren’t going to do it for him anymore. It was Gryffindor red and gold, and Remus had charmed it to sparkle and the letters to flash. Peter had precisely, almost mathematically, done the lettering. James had mostly got glitter in his wild, dark hair.

When Remus got back from the infirmary, he saw the banner, and the three boys assembled, and nodded tiredly.

“Okay, gentlemen, okay,” he said softly. “Mr. Lupin is prepared to discuss his, ah, ‘furry little problem’ and answer any questions which might arise from it.”

“Mr. Potter,” Peter said with a magnanimous hand gesture, “would you like to start us off?”

“Thank you, Mr. Pettigrew.” James cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses. “Right, gents. It has come to our collective attention that Mr. Lupin is, in fact, secretly a werewolf. We are here now to determine in what capacity we might lend him our collective aid. But first, and more importantly, Mr. Potter would like to propose we continue our work in secret, under the name, ‘The Marauders’ because it’s hella cool. All in favor?” Four hands raised immediately. “Unanimously agreed, that we shall continue our secret work under the name ‘The Marauders’. Mr. Lupin, you may now have the floor to tell us your tale.”

“Mr. Lupin cedes to your questions, gentlemen,” Remus said nervously. “What do you want to know?”  
  


“Is your mum okay?” Sirius asked.

“Yes,” Remus said with a guilty sigh. “She’s just fine, other than worrying about me too fucking much.”

“How did it... happen?” Peter asked softly.

Remus closed his eyes tightly. “He broke in through my window. Just before the moon rose. I was four and a half. He told me to be quiet, or he would kill my parents. He told me what he was going to do, and then the moon rose, and he did it. I watched him change, in my fucking bedroom.”

Remus was starting to shake. Sirius grabbed his hand. Peter went for some chocolate. James got him a blanket and wrapped it warmly around his back.

Remus cleared his throat. “Thanks, gents. He, uh, he bit me. And I couldn’t help it, I fucking screamed. And my mum and da came running. Da worked for the Ministry then, and he knew all these spells, so he started shooting off, but my mum is a Muggle. She just started screaming, and tearing at her hair trying to get to me. He, uh, got away. Out the window, the way he came in.”

“What did the Aurors do?” James asked.

Remus shook his head vehemently. “No police, no hospitals,” he said, as if it were a mantra. “We moved, and no one ever knew. I just... stayed home. And read books, and played records, and hung out with my parents.”

“Well, you’re here now,” Peter said.

“Yeah,” James added with a cheeky grin, “you’re definitely not alone anymore.”

Sirius squeezed Remus’s hand, and Remus squeezed back. He had the faintest of smiles on his face, though he was wiping away tears with the other hand.

“So the question remains,” James said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, “how can we help?”

“I don’t know,” Remus answered honestly. “Believe me, if there were something I could do to keep from tearing myself apart every month, I’d love to try it, but I don’t think there’s anything we can do.”

James and Sirius and Peter all looked at each other with determination. It certainly wasn’t going to stop them from trying.

“So,” Remus said softly, “you really don’t mind? That I’m – I mean...”

“You’re a Marauder, like us,” James assured him. “That comes first.”

“Besides,” Sirius added, “we’ve all got our baggage, our little thing that makes us different.”

“Except James,” Peter pointed out.

“I’m perfectly well-adjusted,” James agreed with a self-satisfied smile. “Except maybe that my parents love me a little _too_ much for it to be really properly English. But they can’t help it.”

Sirius groaned and punched James in the arm, which started a tussle that went on for ten minutes before order could finally be restored.

“What’s Peter’s baggage, then,” Remus asked innocently.

“Well,” Peter said, “my dad is a deadbeat. And my mum’s a lesbian, you know.”

“We know, Peter!” they all groaned.

Two months later, when they were helping Remus and Peter work on the map of the castle they’d been working on since the first week of the first year, James and Sirius had an idea of their own.

It was a reconnaissance mission, mapping hallways and such, but they ended up finding a secret passage that led to the basement of Honeyduke’s. After a thorough exploration, which took much longer than it rightfully should have, they hurried back up to the dorm to share their find.

Remus and Peter had just finished the charms that made the map fold and unfold, so when it was not in use it looked just like a folded bit of blank parchment. They were more than happy to fold and unfold the map again to show James and Sirius, who praised their genius accordingly.

When it was James and Sirius’s turn to share their findings, things got a bit more exciting. The new secret passage must be tested, of course, and immediately. So the four boys clambered under James’s invisibility cloak with Remus and Peter’s map as Sirius led them to a particular statue in an otherwise unassuming corridor. It took forever to get anywhere in the castle, even with the map, because they had to move so slowly. The four of them, even under an invisibility cloak, could make enough noise for two. (Remus stalked silently like the apex predator he was, and Sirius had been raised to be quiet.)

“This would be easier,” Sirius said when they were finally in the tunnel, “if that map could map people moving as well as staircases.”

Remus stopped suddenly short, with Peter running into him from behind with a loud “Oof!”

“People?” he said in a small voice. Then a grin spread out on his face. “Sirius Black, you’re so fucking brilliant I could kiss you.”

Sirius’s stomach did a funny little flip when Remus said that, which he filed away to think about later. In the now, he said cockily, “Given you an idea, have I?”

“Didn’t you say there was a bookshop in Hogsmede?” Remus asked excitedly. “Can we go see if they have a section for cartography?”

They were stepping out into the basement then, just as Remus was saying this, so Sirius’s eyes were on Remus when Remus saw all the chocolate around them and his green eyes lit up like it was Christmas time. Sirius’s stomach did that flippy thing again.

“Uh-oh,” Sirius joked, “he’s seen the chocolate and gone all moony on us!”

James snorted, patting Remus on the back. “Tell us about your breakthrough, oh genius.”

“Well,” Remus said, and then he was off into a tear that was almost too technical for the other Marauders to follow.

“Slow down, Professor,” Peter reminded him more than once, and Remus would loop back and try to explain it again, but slower and simpler for them, all the while moving from one pile of chocolate to the next, hands hovering but never touching.

“Come on,” James said finally, “everyone have your pick. We’ll leave money by the register with a note saying what we took, so they’ll know in the morning,” he said to placate Remus, who looked like he might protest. At that, they all nodded. “It’s on me, gents,” James assured them, counting out exact change for the till.

They made it back to their dorm without incident. They celebrated this by staying up way too late consuming chocolate, and poring over the book Remus had bought in Hogsmede.

Remus didn’t have nearly the pocket money that James or Sirius, or even Peter had, but he had insisted on buying it himself. He could be proud, like that, about money, and Sirius was trying to get James to understand why they had to be careful there.

James had a tendency to just empty his pockets for whatever his friends needed, always confident that he could just write to his parents if he needed more money. The money wasn’t important to him, the way it was with other people, it was just one resource he could pool into the Marauders. But Sirius knew Remus, and even Peter to a certain extent, didn’t see it that way.

Sirius, though he had been raised with more than enough wealth, had also been raised to be very conscious of it, and the way others reacted to it. He never wanted to use this awareness to make his friends feel bad, though, and it was one of the many ways in which he let his mother down on a daily basis. Sirius spared a thought, as he so often did, for Regulus, who was alone with her and all her crazy now.

He showed no sign of it on his face, though, as he celebrated with his friends. By the time they were ready for Remus to read to them from The Silmarillion and go to sleep, it was very late and they were all exhausted. It had been a productive night of mischief for the Marauders.


End file.
